Obsession
by comic-book-freak-22
Summary: Monica is Ben's best friend but since he's been outed as a hero he has become strangely protective of her and wont even let her go on patrols with them. But when Kevin manages to sneak her out on one of his solo patrols, she encounters a strange creature that becomes obsessed with her, and she soon comes to find that Ben's fears were not without grounds. (BenxOC)
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, I know I really should be writing my other stories and not publishing new ones, but that's what's happening. This is a work in progress that I have a couple different ideas for, so we'll see which one takes as this goes. I can tell you, I don't like Ben and Julie together, so they wont remain that way for the bulk of this story. This is a Ben X OC story. I hope you enjoy it and please tell me what you think.**

**I don't own Bent Ten**

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_Galileo was put on trial and spent the last years of his life in prison for suggesting that the earth revolved around the sun. We think we have a pretty good understanding of how the universe works now, but what if we don't? What if we're wrong? What if everything we had been taught was wrong? The world was awoken with that terrifying realization when Benjamin Curtis Tennyson came into the spot light. The world was perfectly content with its blissful ignorance to the existence of other life. Many even wish to go back to that ignorance, and the rest just want to be living where that ignorance is reality. Yet there are some that are fascinated with this discovery, these are the people like Monica Harangue._

Monica stared ahead at the board taking distracted notes as the teacher talked about the development of the U.S. government, she had already read the chapter so she wasn't that determined to pay attention during this particular lesson. She glanced at the clock and internally groaned at how much time was left in the day before she could go home and pass out, her eyes fell back to the notebook on her desk and she looked at it curiously as she had started to apparently just write down random words. She shook her head and began erasing the last couple lines of notes on her paper when the door to the classroom suddenly swung open. She looked up and saw a very exhausted looking Ben standing in the door way bent over and panting with his finger raised towards the teacher who stood expectantly at the front of the room with her arms crossed and staring pointedly at him.

"I-I am sorry." He panted, "I had a late night." He tried but the teacher just kept staring at him, he looked at the floor nervously, "I'll just," he pointed to the back and sighed, "Yeah." He said quietly as he walked carefully to the vacant seat beside Monica, after he had sat down The teacher eyed him for a second more before turning back to the board and jumping back into her lesson.

Monica eyed Ben with raised eyebrows as he rummaged through his backpack looking through his notebook, by now she wasn't even paying the teacher the slightest attention as she watched her friend struggle with finding the right one letting a couple curses quietly slip.

_Monica was a girl that had known Ben since they were in diapers and after he had returned from that fateful summer break when they were ten she had sensed something was different about him, but she never would have guessed that the watch was what it was. That is until about six years later when his face was plastered all over the news. That was the fateful day the whole world learned about the existence of aliens and Ben's ability to transform into many different kinds of said aliens. And that honestly fascinated Monica, and just like that so many questions that had plagued her were answered, why Ben was always disappearing for days at a time, why he always missed school, and why he was always so secretive about his adventures._

She snorted at his struggles but Ben either didn't hear her or didn't care to pay attention to it because he simply kept looking.

"Ah-ha!" He exclaimed excitedly as he pulled out his history notebook and slammed it down on the desk looking to Monica with a smug expression. She corked her eyebrow at him and closed her own notebook seconds before the final bell for class rang. Ben groaned and slammed his head on the desk as the students around him began to file out of the room.

Monica sighed and slid her notebook over to him, "Notes for today so you can copy them down." She said and Ben looked up at her from his position on the desk with a semi-relieved look. "Fifty minutes late to third period?" She asked and his expression changed to a scowl.

"I had a late night." He said as he grabbed her notebook and shoved it into his bag and followed her out into the hallway.

"You always have late nights," She responded incredulously, "When are you going to take my advice and just get into homeschooling?" She asked and Ben laughed.

"What, you mean you don't like tutoring me?" He asked in mock offence, raising a hand to his chest like he had been hit. "I'm wounded."

"You'll bounce back." She deadpanned, stopping in front of her locker and opened it while Ben slunk against the one next to her with a sigh, "Alright, let's hear it, what was it this time?" she asked as she began switching out her books for her next classes.

"Forever knights." Ben looked at her with his head tilted, "Kevin and I found a trail of them right as we were wrapping up patrols last night and had to hunt them down to stop them from whatever it is those guys do at this point." He explained and Monica ahh'd and nodded, "Well, as it turns out we interrupted a recruiting session and before we knew it the test became get rid of Kevin and I, which meant we had to go through a bunch adolescents before we could get to the actual forever knights. Anyways by the time I got home it was like four in the morning and I slept right through my alarms." He explained.

Monica shook her head and turned to him, "Ben, you can't keep missing classes like this, you-"

"Hello Ben." a happy voice piped up from behind Ben and Monica internally groaned as Julie came into view and kissed Ben on the cheek.

"Hey." Ben responded happily, throwing an arm around his girlfriend. The two seemed to forget that Monica was standing there as they began their disgusting display of coupley love.

Monica rocked back and forth on her heels for a bit before pointedly clearing her throat, Julie looked at her with an embarrassed look, "Oh, I'm so sorry, was I interrupting something?" She asked looking to Ben.

"Actually," Monica said before shaking her head and closing her locker, "actually I'm late for a meeting with my councilor so I should probably get going." She said with a wave as she quickly retreated away from the couple ignoring the confused look Ben gave her. She rounded the corner and slumped against the wall with a groan, her gaze cast up to the ceiling before she pushed off and headed towards her next class quickly.

_Monica had had a crush on Ben since they were in the sixth grade, not that she would ever admit that to him, and it's not like he ever noticed. Julie had appeared out of the blue and as such she had pushed her feelings to the side and tried to be happy for them but after the first year she got tired of the lovey dovey act and suddenly started to avoid the two whenever they were together. Ben seemed to notice at least that much but Monica had gotten great at skirting the subject and not giving him a direct answer. It was sad how oblivious Ben was to it all, everyone else knew of her crush and everyone seemed to have an opinion on what she should do about it. She has chosen to ignore it and hope it goes away._

Monica continued to stare at the clock as the minutes of the day ticked away and soon she found herself impatiently tapping her leg as the clock slowly ticked to the end of the day. She was yet again not paying attention to her teacher as they droned on about something to do with how oxygen reacts to something... She thinks, when she zoned out that was what they were talking about. She wasn't even paying any mind to Ben who sat next to her giving her some very confused glances as she added in tapping her pencil on the edge of the desk to her fiddling.

Finally after about five minutes Ben groaned and grabbed her closed fist to stop her tapping. She felt herself being thrown out of her daze and turned to look at his hand confused before looking up at him, he leaned in closer and whispered to her. "If you keep that up I'm gonna smack you." He warned jokingly pulling his hand away and shooting her a smile before turning back to the teacher. She snorted before looking back the clock, being conscious not to begin tapping again. After what felt like forever the clock finally ticked to 3:00 and the bell rang and Monica swore she had never packed up and bolted from a class faster.

As had become the normal routine for her and Ben he followed her to her locker, "Eager to get out of here I see." He commented.

"Well, unlike some, I have been here since school started." She shot back without a thought and Ben simply laughed.

"What was it you were going to say this morning before Julie came?" He asked curiously.

Monica froze and took a quick breath of air to keep herself from screaming at the mention of Ben's girlfriend, "I can't really remember." She answered curtly.

Ben eyed her suspiciously, no doubt seeing through her lie, he could see that but not that she liked him, "Alright." He said slowly, still eyeing her every move, "We on for studying tonight?" He asked.

She let out a small sigh of relief at the subject change, "We can, but it will need to be at your house, Dad is gonna be home tonight, he's having a work party." She said and Ben seemed to flinch a little at the mention of her father.

_Oh yeah, and then there was that, her father. Better known as William Harangue Newscaster and Professional Ben Tennyson Slander from channel 3. The man hated Ben, even before he became known as the alien boy, and as such has never liked the fact that Monica hung out with him, much less the idea of her dating him. So as far as her dad was concerned she didn't socialize with Ben, despite the fact that he remains one of her few and only friends. And of course the media was happy to portray that, it wouldn't very good for his public view if his daughter was caught hanging out with the Menus otherwise known as Tennyson._

Ben sighed, "We won't be able to it at my place tonight, my parents are having one of their weird "dinner parties" with some people from Mom's work. Guess we'll have to cancel for tonight." He said and added as an afterthought, "Maybe I'll see if Julie wants to go to the movies or something."

Monica forcefully closed her locker and turned to look at her shocked friend, "Yea, look I really need to be getting home so hopefully I'll see you first hour tomorrow." She said and turned to walk off before Ben even had a chance to respond. He watched as the girl practically ran out of the school with confusion, he had been noticing that she runs away anytime Julie comes into the conversation. Maybe they just weren't hanging out as much as they could. He walked off to another part of the school to find his girlfriend and talk to her about it.

Monica quickly ran out the doors and to her car in the back of the parking lot and jumped in, throwing her bag into the passenger seat and put on her seatbelt, she then gripped the steering wheel and stared at the entrance to the school as students poured out of the building. Her grip tightened on the wheel and she slammed her head on the wheel, narrowly missing the horn and sat that way for a few minutes. She knew she was being irrational with her reactions to Julie lately but she couldn't help it, just the mention of the girls name made her feel sick to her stomach. And lately she seemed all Ben could talk about. She needed a distraction out of her house tonight. She pulled her head away from the steering wheel and pulled her phone out of her bag. There were two people she could call and right now she wanted the one that wouldn't tell her to tell Ben how she feels. So she punched in the number to call him and waited for him to answer.

"Levin. How the hell did you get this number?" Came the curt response.

"What kind of people call you that that is how you answer the phone every damn time?" She asked before adding quickly, "And why the hell is my number not saved in your phone yet?" She asked incredulously.

"Oh, hey Mon, what's up?" Kevin responded chipperly.

"You doing anything tonight?" She asked curtly, "I don't really want to be in the house for my dad's work party." She explained.

"I'm just doing patrols tonight, but you know Ben doesn't want you going on those. Speaking of which, why don't you just hang out with Ben tonight?" He asked.

"Julie." She said coldly.

"I'll pick you up at your house at five, just don't tell Ben I took you on patrol." He responded without any further questioning.

"See you then." She said before the line went dead and she finally took off towards her home. That was one thing she could count on, Kevin understood her irrational hatred towards Julie and was always willing to offer distractions, even if it meant possibly getting killed by Ben. Ben seemed to have this fear that if Monica went on a patrol with any of them she would die. _But he doesn't have any issues with Julie going. Maybe he doesn't think you're as capable as her._ Monica shook her head at the thought and sped up to get back to her house quickly. She managed to do just that and she sat in the driveway staring at her garage door. She glanced down at her car clock and saw the time was 3:15, she still had almost two hours before Kevin would be at her house. She sighed and put the car in park, might as well get her father's interrogation out of the way sooner rather than later so she might actually be able get some homework done before Kevin arrived. She took a fortifying breath before grabbing her bag and opening her car door. She walked to her door and began mentally ticking off the assignments she had for the evening. She had been fortunate enough to knock out science during class as she had read ahead in the chapter, but math was worrying her, the teacher had decided to randomly spring an assignment that she hadn't been able to read in the chapter yet and she was struggling with grasping its concept.

She continued thinking on this as she unlocked her front door and stepped into her house. She looked around and realized her mother must have spent extra care with the cleaning today, no doubt for her father's party. For some reason his coworkers judged heavily if there was even a small speck of dust on the coffee table by the couch. Yet another reason she hated being present for these functions, everyone was so quick to judge for whatever slight they may be able to justify. Which was laughable coming from most of them. She shook her head and looked further into the house, realizing suddenly that her parents weren't home and she might actually be spared her father's anger filed rant about Ben today. She quickly made her way up the stairs and locked her bedroom door behind her, intent on not having any interruptions while she got her work done.

At some point in the back of Monica's mind she registered the front door opening and her father's loud voice sounded throughout the house, but she was too engrossed in her homework to do anything about it. She was sure she'd be getting an earful for locking her door but in that moment she couldn't care. She had finally, after an hour and countless internet searches, figured out her math homework. She wrote down the answer to the final question and looked at her clock on her desk. The numbers flashed brightly 4:52 pm. She sighed happily as she gathered all her papers and shoved them in her backpack before putting on her tennis shoes and heading downstairs. She was met by the sounds of dishes clattering in the kitchen.

"I'm going out guys." She yelled into the kitchen running to the door before she could get a response.

"With who?" Her father shouted back before she could escape.

"Not Ben." She responded as she opened the door. "Bye!"

The door slammed shut behind her blocking out whatever response her father was going to give. She sighed as she saw Kevin's car idling in the drive way, and she ran to the passenger side, hoping in and slamming her head against the head rest. Kevin eyed her as she slowly raised her head and silently put on her seatbelt.

"Hope you don't mind driving a ways tonight." He said, feeling it would be wiser of him to not immediately jump into asking the obvious question.

"Not at all, but why?" She asked as he pulled out of her driveway.

"Forever knights hopefully." He responded and she nodded in response. The car fell silent and stayed that way for the majority of the ride. Kevin would occasionally fiddle with his crime scanner, and would sometimes instruct her to tell him the number reading on his tracker. She enjoyed the silence, Gwen would try to ask her about Ben and Ben would do nothing but talk about Julie. Kevin on the other hand, didn't question her, didn't talk unless she started the conversation, and he never once brought up the elephant in the room- er car.

They continued like this until they lost reception on the crime reader and tracker started going berserk. Kevin pulled it from her hands and played with the dials a little before throwing it in the back seat. "Guess we're here." He said pulling into the old mining field they had arrived at. He shut the car off and got out Monica following his lead, expecting him to tell her to get back in the car. But instead he waited for her to join him at the trunk and he smirked before opening it up. Monica's eyes widened as she looked at the weapons that lined Kevin's trunk before looking back at him confused. "I know that you're able to use about half of these weapons, I've seen your combat training, pick one."

"You're actually gonna let me on the front line?" She asked incredulously already fiddling with one of the larger guns.

"I said I'd let you go on patrols with me, besides, having you by my side would be safer than leaving you in the car." He said and she smirked looking back to the trunk.

Her eyes scanned the assortment of guns before landing on a small handgun of sorts, it was the same size as a pistol but seemed to have the capacity to grow in size based on the paneling lining the sides, "Is all this alien tech?" She asked and Kevin nodded in response. She smiled before picking up the gun. "Let's go." She said and Kevin slammed the trunk down.

"I have one rule." He said, staring down at her threatening, "You do exactly what I say, even if what I say is run. Got it?" He asked and she nodded in response. "Good, now stay quiet." He said before turning and walking to the entrance of the mines, Monica close on his heels. He stopped and peered into entrance, his eyes scanning to see if he could find any traps. Once he had decided it was clear he gestured for Monica to follow after him and he carefully walked into the caverns.

Monica's eyes took a bit to adjust to the darkness but soon enough she found herself able to navigate close enough to Kevin to not lose him. She looked around and caught sight of some markings on the far wall that Kevin had evidently missed. She stopped in her tracks as she squinted to make them out better. She groaned before looking back to Kevin who was crouched down examining something on the floor. She bit her lip before shrugging and walking over to the wall to examine the writing. Her eyes might have adjusted but not enough to see what the writing said, so without much thought she pulled out her phone and turned on the flashlight shining it on the wall. Whatever the writing was it wasn't in any language she had ever seen before. Which, granted she didn't know very many languages but she was positive the one on the wall wasn't from earth.

"Hey, Kev." She called, turning her head to make sure he was paying attention, which thankfully he was. "Come take a look at this." She said and Kevin quickly made his way to her side. "What language is this?" She asked as Kevin studied the language closely.

"I have no idea." He answered pulling out his phone. He snapped a photo of the writing, quickly stowing his phone away in his pocket. "But I'm sure someone at HQ can translate it for us." He said before looking at her phones bright light, "Be careful where you shine that." He directed and she nodded. He turned and started further into the mines, Monica following after, looking closely at the walls to see if there was any more writing.

And sure enough, her eyes landed on large red writing, this time clearly in English. She froze as she took the words in "GET OUT. IT'S HERE!" She had no idea what the warning was for, but based on the jagged writing she can only assume that whatever it is it's not something one would want to run into. "Hey," She shakily said and she heard Kevin's steps go silent, "How long has this mine been abandoned exactly?" As soon as the words left her mouth she felt her stomach drop at the sound of approaching footsteps. She turned too looked further down the cave and she knew that Kevin had heard it too as he had knelt down and turned into stone. Without thinking she raised her phone to shine the light down the cavern. A large shadow stretched down the cavern and began shrinking, signaling that the creature was coming towards them. "What is that?" She asked anxiously.

"Turn the phone off." Kevin commanded in a low voice. She immediately obeyed and quickly stowed her phone in her pocket. She gripped the gun in her hand tighter, raising it to a defensive position. "Remember," Kevin said looking back at her, "If I say run, you run." She nodded in agreement but the both of them knew deep down that she wouldn't. This is what she had been waiting for, months of Ben telling her she wasn't capable of holding her own against what he fought, she now had a chance to prove him wrong , and she would be damned if Kevin telling her to run would stop her from doing just that. She took a fortifying breath before stoning her face and looking ahead, waiting for whatever was coming to attack.

Both she and Kevin stood frozen in place as the sound of footsteps grew in volume and it donned on Monica that they weren't going to be facing one thing, but an entire squad. As they grew closer the sound of clanking medal hit her ears, and that confirmed that it was forever knights. She looked back at the message on the wall in confusion, had the knights left it there to scare off any prying eyes, or did they not heed the warning? As the knights grew closer a light came through the cavern, obviously they had brought something to light their way, which was good, because if she was going to fight them she would need to be able to see. As they rounded the corner the questions left her mind as the men froze at the sight of the two teenagers.

"Kevin Levin." One in front said, his voice muffled slightly by his helmet. "While we would love to kill you, we have more pertinent matters to attend to, so if you wouldn't mind." He said, waving his hand dismissively at Kevin.

"Nah, I was thinking more of beating answers out of you." He responded casually. The knights all jumped into defensive stances at his statement, "Unless you'd like to give them to me the easy way." He said cracking his knuckles, "But I'd much rather the hard way, personally."

"Men, dispose of this road block." Came the response and the knights charged at Kevin. Monica stood off in the back and watched in amazement as Kevin began taking the knights out with ease, on the news all anyone focuses on is Ben sometimes she forgets how strong Kevin and Gwen must be. She lowered the gun slightly as she watched him handle the small group of knights easily. She had the feeling he didn't really need her help, and until he said something she wasn't going to risk shooting him in all the chaos.

Her attention was drawn back to the warning on the wall when a shadow caught her eye. It was fleeting but she could have sworn she saw something move past the wall, which didn't make any sense as the Knights hadn't been able to make it past Kevin. Anxiously she raised her gun once again and slowly looked around her for any sign of whatever it was. The sound of the fight Kevin was having fell quiet on her ears as she turned and came face to face with a shadowy figure with bright blue eyes. She froze as it stared almost thoughtfully at her for a moment before a sickening grin spread across its dark face, white razor sharp teeth bared at her. As it stepped toward her she fired her gun, the bright green beam shooting swiftly towards the creature but, almost as if it had been watching in slow motion, it moved quickly to the side, causing the beam to miss and explode into one of the support beams holing the cavern open. She raised her arms above her head to stop any falling rubble from hitting her head, as the ceiling and walls shook she heard distantly Kevin yelling at her to be careful before resuming his fight. When the shaking stopped she turned back to where the shadowy figure had been standing, but it was no longer there. She frantically began spinning around looking for the creature again, her grip tight on the gun. She felt a chill run down her spine but before she could turn she felt cold arms wrap around her neck, she gasped in pain when she felt teeth sink into her shoulder. She quickly and forcefully jerked her elbow back into the abdomen of the creature, shocked when it actually reeled back in shock. She turned and before it could recover she shot at it again, this time the shot hit and threw the creature back against the wall. She raised her hand to her shoulder where the thing had bit her and she felt the wet stream of blood slowly pooling from the wound. She dropped her hand and looked back at the dazed creature, it slowly stood and looked violently at her.

"What the hell are you?" She asked darkly, but the creature instead chose to look behind her where Kevin was fighting the forever knights. That's when the silence of the cavern finally hit her ears and she turned to see Kevin pointing one of the Knights lances at the creature.

"You heard the girl." He said as he walked to Monica's side, "Why were the knights so determined to get away from you?" Monica looked back to see the scattered unconscious Forever Knights and realized that Kevin must has beat the answers out of them like he said he would. When she turned back to the creature she was surprised to see it smiling deviously at the very annoyed Kevin before, to the shock of both her and Kevin, it vanished into thin air.

"Where did it go?" Monica asked nervously, turning to look behind her.

"It went out." Kevin responded, gesturing to the way they had come in, "Whatever that was, those Forever Knights let it out and regretted that decision almost immediately." He said before turning and looking at her, "It got you." He said tilting her head to the side to look at the bite mark on her shoulder. "Let's get back to the car, I'll call clean up to take care of these scums, but right now we should get you bandaged. And prey the Ben doesn't notice." Monica nodded and followed after Kevin as they went back out to the car.

"Shouldn't we investigate where the Forever Knights found that thing?" She asked as he pulled out the first aid kit and pulled out the disinfectant alcohol. She winced as he rubbed her wound.

"I will, but not tonight, and not with you here." He said, "If you get anymore hurt than you already are I'm gonna be on the most wanted list that Ben keeps." He joked and she laughed as he tapped the bandage down on her shoulder. "Besides, the plumbers are probably gonna want to get as much force on this as they can. That thing had the knights pretty rattled, so I can only imagine what exactly it is."

"An ass is what it is." She said as the rubbed the bandage, securing it to her shoulder. She pulled out her phone and noticed that she had three missed calls from Ben and fifteen texts. "Uh-oh." She said and Kevin looked over her shoulder at the messages. They both shared a concerned look before she closed her phone and put it in her pocket again. "I'll just tell him I mingled with my dad's coworkers and he would've killed me if anyone saw me texting him." She said at Kevin's confused look. She shrugged before walking around and getting in the shotgun seat of his car. Kevin closed the trunk and got in the driver's seat. They drove in silence until they reached the busy roads of town again. "Does this mean that I wont get to go on anymore patrols?" She asked.

Kevin laughed, "After how well you held your own against that thing? Nah, I'm gonna start taking you out more." She smiled at that and did a small air bump at that. Kevin smirked as he turned onto her street. "Just make sure to keep quiet about all of this with Ben, he still doesn't want you out there doing what we do." He said as he stopped in front of her house.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." She said as she got out of the car, "Thanks Kev." She said as she closed the car door and walked into the house. She was greeted by her tired father, "Hey dad." She said and he turned to look at her skeptically.

"You weren't out with the menace were you?" He asked and she rolled her eyes.

"He is not a menace, dad, and no I wasn't." She said as she walked briskly past her father and upstairs, shouting back to her father, "I'm tired, I'll see you tomorrow!" When she got to her room she closed the door and finally pulled out her phone. She sent a text off to Ben letting him know her lie and told him she would see him at school the next day. As she began her nightly routine she received a text back, all it said was Ben had something important to tell her at school. She close the message and changed into her pajamas, quickly getting into bed and falling asleep, unaware of the blue eyes following her movements from outside her window.

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**And that's that, I don't know when chapter two will be up, but hopefully it will be soon. I hope you liked it. Until next time.**

**The freak is out of here :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello all! Updates may be a little late from me for a while, my laptops hard drive quit on me and until I get it fixed I am mainly working from my work computer while I'm on break. So please bear with me for the foreseeable future on the updates. **

**I hope that you enjoyed the first chapter of _Obsession_ and I hope that you will review it so I can get feedback. So without any more stalling on with the story!**

**I don't own Ben Ten**

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Monica woke up forty-five minutes late the next morning and as she scrambled to get ready and get to school on time she suddenly understood why Ben was always missing first hour. She threw her hair up in a messy haphazard bun and grabbed her travel toothpaste and brush. She swung her bag over her shoulder and ran down the stairs, only to be greeted by the confused face of her mother.

"Monica?" Her mom asked, "I thought you were already gone for school." She said as she moved to let her daughter run into the kitchen.

"I slept late." She said quickly disappeared behind the wall separating the kitchen and the living room. When she reemerged she had a bagel clenched in her mouth and her bag falling off her shoulder as she reached into the bowl by the front door to find her keys. "Hmm mmhm mmah hah." She said through a mouthful of bagel as she waved goodbye to her mother and ran out the door. She fiddled with the lock on her car for a moment before the key finally went in the lock and she flung the door open, and threw her bag into the passenger seat. She finally had a hand free to pull the bagel out of her mouth and as she did she climbed into the car and started the car, as she was backing up she pulled her seat belt on and as she turned to drive down her road she finally stopped to breath. She finished eating her bagel as she turned onto the main road to her school and when she had she pulled out the toothbrush and toothpaste and began to quickly brush her teeth, moving to drive with her knee as she reached over and grabbed her water bottle. She took a sip and started swishing the water around as she came to a red light, she rolled down her window and spit out the pastey water. She rolled up her window and pulled down her visor and mirror, checking once more to make sure the light stayed red, upon the confirmation of this she pulled out her emergency makeup bag she kept in her car. She pulled out the eye shadow stick and quickly put some on, looking at the rest of the contents of the bag she decided to forgo eye liner and just pulled out her mascara. She quickly applied it before looking back at the light and cursing when she saw it was green. She put up her visor and stepped on the gas as she neared the school she glanced at the clock and saw the numbers flashing 8:40, she breathed a sigh of relief at that knowing she still had five minutes to get to class and from where she was now it should only take three.

That is, it would have if she didn't come up on an accident that blocked the road. She groaned as traffic came to a stop, her head slamming against the headrest in frustration. She pulled out her phone and sent a text off to Ben.

_You in first period today?_

She pulled off to the side of the road, along with all the cars in front of her to allow the police cars to pass by to the wreck. Her phone buzzed and she looked down to read the message from Ben.

_Yea, where the hell are you? Aren't you the one always giving me shit for being late?_

She snorted a laugh at the irony of the whole situation before she looked up to see if traffic was moving at all, and unfortunately it did not appear to be doing so for a while. She sighed as she put her car in reverse and pulled back a little until she was able to make a U-turn. She waited for an opening and while she did she shot off one final text to Ben.

_Got stuck behind an accident, gonna go back route, be ten minutes late._

There was an opening and she made her turn and continued in the opposite direction down the road. She made a turn onto the first street behind where she was and continued down that road for but before turning again and the school finally came into view and she sped up slightly to reach the parking lot. She looked at her clock as she pulled into the lot and searched for a spot. Her estimate she gave Ben was pretty close, she would get to class probably eight minutes late. She sighed as she parked her car and scrambled to get all her stuff as she practically sprinted to the schools entrance.

Her venture was stopped once more though when she opened the door and ran headfirst into another student, the collision knocking her off balance and causing her to fall over. She quickly scrambled up to her feet and turned to see her or victim on the ground as well.

She quickly reached out and grabbed his arm to help him up. "Oh my gosh I am so sorry, I didn't even see you." she frantically apologized.

"Its okay, " the boy laughed, "Its not the first time I've been run into," he laughed as he looked her up and down, noting the substantial difference in their heights, "Although I will say its the first time I have been plowed over by someone as small as you." he smirked and Monica laughed at that. "I didn't catch your name."

She looked at him with a thoughtful look, "I didn't throw it." she challenged.

The boy laughed deeply at her comment before extending his hand to her, "Then allow me to throw mine. Names Justin Geisert." he said proudly.

She shook his hand, "Monica." she responded with a smile, "So-" She started before the sight of a shadow moving in the corner of her eye caused her head to whip around quickly, her hand that Justin had been shaking ripping from his grasp and flying to the wound on her neck as it began to burn slightly.

Justin looked in the direction she was staring in in confusion, "Is everything okay?" he asked carefully.

"Yeah, I thought I just saw..." Monica started before shaking her head and turning back to Justin with a smile, "So Geistert, you're the new student, right?" She asked, hoping to just ignore what had happened.

"Ye-yeah, how did you know?" He asked confused.

"Oh, I work in the office on my off hour." She explained. "Why aren't you in class?"

"I cant find the room. Whats your excuse?" He asked with a flirtatious smile.

Monica blushed at the smile before clearing her throat and looking away from him, "I- uh- I woke up late and then ran into an accident on the way here, and then ran into you here." She explained, still not looking at the boy. "What-what room are you in?" She asked and he held out his schedule for her to see. "Oh, that class is right next to mine actually. Come on, I'll show you." She said in a friendly manner as she turned and walked up the stairs next to the entrance and led him down the halls to the English hall and pointed him to the classroom. He smiled and started to say something but Monica began walking away before he could.

Justin smiled at her retreating form with confusion before opening the door to his class and walking in to greet his classmates for the remainder of the school year. As he took his seat he felt like someone was staring at him but as he looked around the room no one was. He shook off the feeling as he pulled out a notebook and began to take notes on what the teacher was saying.

Monica tried to quietly open the door to her class and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the class was watching a movie. She quietly made her way to the teachers desk in the back of the room and whispered her apology for being late. As she was such a good student her teacher waved it away and she went and took her seat by a suspicious Ben. He looked at her with raised eyebrows and she shook her head and mouthed "later" to him. As she settled into the class she could still feel Ben's eyes on her for a moment before he turned back to the projector screen playing Othello.

Monica tired to pay attention to what was being said on the movie, but she couldn't get the burning sensation from earlier out of her mind, she would have to let Kevin know about it before to long. Her hand absentmindedly began rubbing her shoulder where the mark was, she had no idea why that thing had bit her, or why it looked so pleased with itself after it had. The whole situation was odd, even by her standards, and the worst part was she had to keep it hidden from Ben. She sighed as she slumped further into her seat and closed her eyes, at least she had a knew level of understanding for Ben's constant state of being tired at school, also always being late. She smirked at the thought, she had only gotten home at 10, but with the patrol going the way it did she was still exhausted to no end. Her mind began to wander to the patrol and she found herself lost in thought about that creature and the Knights being there with it. It didn't seem to make any sense to her on why they were there in the first place as they ended up running away from the thing. Monica suddenly realized she hadn't been focusing on the film and now her teacher had paused it and was asking the class questions about what had just taken place. Another thing she now understood more was why Ben could never focus during class.

Ben, for that matter, was sitting quietly by her side, in fact he was being a little too quiet for her liking. She opened her eyes and looked over to her friend, who she found was returning her stare with concerned eyes. She rolled her eyes and stood, walking back to the teacher she asked quietly to go to the bathroom, when she was handed the pass she looked pointedly at Ben who nodded his head in understanding. With pass in hand she walked out into the hallway and waited outside the door with crossed arms as she tried to think of the perfect lie to tell the boy. Sooner than she had hoped Ben was opening the door and joining her in the hall.

"Why were you late?" He asked as they stepped a little ways down the hall, away from the door.

"Ran into traffic, and then the new student."

"Now when you say ran into?" Ben joked and she smacked him lightly on the shoulder.

"I came upon the crash I didn't cause it, now as for the new kid I plowed the poor kid over in the hallway, then showed him to his class." she laughed back. "So yeah, traffic and new student are why I'm late."

"And the reason for before that?" He asked with a smirk.

"I overslept." Monica defended, her voice raising in pitch more than she would have liked and she glared at the floor slightly when it did.

"You overslept?" He asked incredulously with a laugh, "How, and why?" He asked, eyeing her closely and she felt herself squirming uncomfortably under his gaze.

"I was tired enough that I slept through my alarms, too long of a night with my dads coworkers I guess." She shrugged off, avoiding looking him in the eye, she knew before he even said anything that he saw through her lie. He had a sixth sense about him when it came to her and lying, he could always see through it. It was a wonder he was still oblivious to her crush but she wasn't complaining.

"Mon," He responded, drawing her attention and kicking her out of her thoughts, "How long have we been friends?" He asked and she looked at him confused.

"Since we were two?" She responded questioningly.

"So, how is it that you still think I cant tell when you're lying?" He asked pointedly and Monica's confusion was replaced with a petulant glare. She did hate him in moments like this though, sometimes she just wanted to be able lie and have him leave it at that.

She crossed her arms and looked away from him, "I really hate you." She mumbled with a glare towards the ground.

Ben smiled endearingly at her childish manor, whenever he called her out on her lies she always got grumpy and stubborn and reminded him of when they were little kids and she would get that way when people tried to pick on him. More often than not it got the bullies off her case, her grump was step away from her blind rage, and even he feared her when she got in those states. He shook the smile from his face, replacing it with a smirk as he spoke, "Another lie." He laughed, "What were you doing last night?" He asked seriously.

"I was out with a friend." She responded, not a lie but also not the complete truth.

"You have friends other than me?" Ben asked, raising a hand to his chest in mock hurt and Monica finally dropped her glare to laugh slightly at his reaction. "What friend?" He asked, hoping she would keep her lightheartedness after his joke, but when her smile fell and her scowl returned he inwardly groaned.

"A male friend." She said through clenched teeth and however Ben interpreted what she had said was good enough for her when he nodded and turned to walk back to the class. She breathed a sigh of relief and followed after him. She stopped a few steps short though, when the burning in her shoulder was back and on instinct she whipped around to look behind her, and when she did she could've sworn she saw a flash of black retreat behind the corner.

"You okay, Mon?" Ben asked, quickly by her side and hand on her shoulder above her bandage and the action caused a shooting pain down her back that caused her to jerk back to look at Ben before she roughly shoved his hand off her shoulder, ignoring the confused look on her friends face as the burning once again died down.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She responded noncommittally as her mind raced with what was happening. "Just thought I saw someone." She quickly waved his concern off as she breezed past Ben back into the room and quickly made her way back to her seat and sat down silently, ignoring Ben's glances as he walked to her and took the hall pass from her hand that she hadn't even remember having and returned it to the teacher, joining her at the table when he had finished. He sat by her side and for the remainder of class she could feel his eyes on her and she found herself sinking into her chair under the scrutinizing gaze, every now and then she would sit up and shift uncomfortable, but the rest of class she avoided looking at Ben, which set the boy off even more.

* * *

First period managed to end without any more issues and Monica practically sprinted to her locker when the bell had sounded, leaving a confused and annoyed Ben in her wake. She quickly opened it and began switching out the books she would need for her next period, trying to make sure she was quick enough to get to her second class before Ben did. Lucky for her Ben and Julie typically met up during this passing period to walk to their next classes together, this would probably be the only time she was grateful for the attached at the hip type of relationship the two had. When she had gathered all the materials she needed she closed her locker and turned to walk to her class when her phone vibrated. She pulled it out and saw that Kevin was calling her, and without thought she answered.

"Hey." She said softly, so that those around her wouldn't be tempted to eavesdrop on the conversation.

_"How you feeling?" _Kevin asked as if this was any other day.

"Paranoid." She answered honestly. "I keep getting a burning sensation on the bite mark and when I look around I see flashes of shadows." She explained quietly, "Tell me I'm just blowing this out of proportion." She finished as she turned down the hall to the stairwell where she could talk in private. She sat down on the stairs and waited for him to respond.

_"Can't say that yet,"_ He responded after a moment of silence,_ "No one can figure out what exactly that thing was, agents are investigating the mine where it was found now, but until they come up with anything I don't really want you around Ben."_ He said carefully. "_That kid can smell out lies on you so easily its creepy."_ He laughed and Monica joined him.

"I'll just say I wasn't feeling well and went home, I can have my mom call it in and leave now." She suggested and Kevin grunted in agreement. "Alright, keep me updated on if you find anything, okay?"

_"Of course."_ Kevin responded before the line went dead. She looked at her phone for a moment before sending her mom a message that said she needed to be called out of the rest of school day, she was heading home sick. Then she walked calmly back to her locker and fished out all she would need for studying, and when she had she walked to her car and drove swiftly home.

The further from the school she got, though, the more that nagging feeling in her grew. That thing was following her, she didn't know how and she didn't know why but she knew whatever it was, it was stalking her. She shook her head of the thoughts as she pulled into her driveway, not even noticing her fathers car parked beside her own. In a daze she meandered into her home, not really focusing on anything but her racing thoughts, so when her father popped his head out from the kitchen and spoke it caused her to nearly jump out of her skin.

"What are you doing home?" He asked and she turned to him with confusion.

"I could ask you the same thing." She quickly responded as she set her bag down by the door and walked up to give him a hug. "I wasn't feeling well, decided to come home to make sure it wouldn't get worse." She answered when she pulled away from him.

"Its that Tenison's fault." He said angrily and she rolled her eyes.

"How is it in any way Ben's fault that I'm sick?" She asked annoyed, ignoring that it kind of is.

"He infected you with some alien virus." Her dad shot back and she groaned, hanging her head in defeat.

"You're right dad, that must be it." She responded with a roll of her eyes before kissing his cheek, "I'm gonna go to bed." she said before retreating to her room upstairs. When the door closed behind her she sighed and stood straight, looking around the room. She had all day to do whatever she wanted, but at this moment what she wanted was to hunt down that thing and kill it but that wasn't really an option to her right now. So instead she sat her desk and pulled out her computer, figuring she could at least get checking her emails out of the way. But when she looked, her email was cleared out so with a sigh she stood and decided she actual would try sleeping, maybe that would get rid of this paranoid feeling she was having. She stood from her desk and toed off her shoes, bending over to grab them so she could put them away on the shelf in her closet. She also took off her jacket and hung it up before closing the closet door and walking to sit on her bed. She pulled her phone out of her bag and plugged it into the charger, noting that she already had several missed texts from Ben, but as she laid back on the bed she decided to just answer him when she woke up. She placed her phone gently on the night table and she felt her eyes close heavily as she quickly fell asleep.

* * *

Ben sat through the rest of the day confused as hell, Monica had disappeared after first period and she hadn't been responding to his texts all day, which both were very unlike her. He was getting concerned as she had been so keen on lying to him about where she was last night, and though he could tell she wasn't lying when she said she was with a guy he could tell she wasn't telling him everything. And Monica was never one to lie or hide things for him, mostly because she knew she couldn't. And of course the memory of her reaction when he had grabbed her shoulder was burned into his mind, she had never been so forceful when pulling away from him. The pained expression on her face when she had had also not slipped his notice and it made him scared as to what caused the reaction. She had been acting weird all day and Ben didn't like it, he knew the girl like the back of his hand so not knowing what was going on with her was not something he knew very well. He couldn't even get her to pay attention during class, the entire time she just stared stubbornly at the desk, not even reacting when the teacher called on her to answer questions so Ben would step in and answer them for her, but even when he nudged her in annoyance she didn't even react, she would just shift further away from him. As the day wore on and his thoughts continued Ben's anxiety got worse and worse as he was still unable to get her to respond to his texts, so by the time his final class came he had resolved that after school he would go to her house to check on her. Besides, he still wanted to talk to her about Julie, he wanted the two women in his life to be friends, so he had talked with Julie about going out to lunch with just Monica sometime this week and he wanted to talk to Monica about the same thing. His mind suddenly turned to thoughts of Monica's reactions to Julie lately and his confusion rose even more. He couldn't understand why Monica always ran away when Julie was around, he doubted she hated the girl as Monica is friends with everyone, but that seemed to be the only logical answer to the whole thing. He just wished that Monica could get along with Julie so that he didn't have to worry about hanging out with only one or the other of the two, it would be nice if he could hang out with his best friend and girlfriend at the same time. Of course anytime he tried to talk about this with Gwen and Kevin they both seized up so fast he's surprised it doesn't give them back problems, which only made him more sure that Monica didn't like Julie.

So engrossed in his thoughts, Ben didn't even hear the bell signaling the end of the day sound, in fact he didn't notice anything until the teacher walked up to him and gently placed her hand on his shoulder. He jerked slightly as he looked up at her, "Is there something you wanted to talk to me about Ben?" She asked sweetly and he looked at her confused before glancing around the room and realizing he was the only one left.

"Oh, no," he said as he grabbed his notebook and backpack, "Sorry Mrs. Kyber, I guess I just zoned out and didn't hear the bell." He apologized as he headed for the door. He sighed when he got to his locker and looked through the notebook in his hands, even when he was at school he couldn't learn anything. He really would be screwed without Monica. He snorted at the thought, something he would never tell the girl for fear of the repercussions of her knowing how much he needs her. He shook his head as he closed his locker and began making his way to the door, stopping when he felt slender arms wrap around his chest. He smiled as he turned to see Julie's face on his shoulder and he turned around to give her a proper hug.

She giggled as he pulled away, "Are you feeling okay, Ben?" She asked her hand going his forehead, "I was calling your name and you didn't seem to hear me." She explained at his questioning look.

He sighed and dropped his hands fro her waist, "Guess I've been a little distracted today," He said with a shrug, "Hey, I'm gonna go visit Monica, to make sure she's okay, I'll see you later?" He asked and Julie gave him a strained smile before nodding and giving him a quick peck when she pulled away Ben watched with a smile as she turned and headed in the direction of her own locker. Ben didn't put anymore thought into the interaction before he turned and practically ran out the door to his car, he made fast work of getting to Monica's house and he stopped across the street, staying in his car. Her fathers truck was sitting in the driveway and Ben groaned before slamming his head on the steering wheel. That man hated him more than the bad guys he fought, and he knew that he wouldn't let Ben in to see his daughter, Ben was pretty sure that the man would do anything to keep Monica from seeing him. He could never figure out why he had hated him so much for so long, even before he came out of the alien hero Harangue had hated his guts and tried to stop Monica from seeing him. Ben smirked at the thought of how well that had worked for the older man. She turned off his engine and stepped out of the car, looking to his watch and quickly selecting Big Chill, when he had transformed he took off into the sky and flew around the back of Monica's house where her bedroom window was located. He looked in and saw the girl on her bed with her back facing him, he quickly started rasping his fingers on her window not caring to be quiet. He watched as her body shifted in annoyance and she turned to level a glare at him. He smiled and waved before pointing to the lock on her window, her eyes following the movement before she threw her head back with a groan but stood and opened the window to him. She stepped to the side and he accepted the invitation, landing on her plush carpet and transforming back into himself.

"What happened to you?" He asked when she had closed the window again.

She sighed before turning away from him and sitting on her bed, "I wasn't feeling well, so I came home early." She explained looking up at him with a bored expression. "Why are you so worried?" She asked, finally noticing the tenseness in his shoulders, she stood and walked towards him again, "Are you okay Ben?" She asked, concern lacing her voice as she placed her hand gently on his shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Ben asked, his voice louder than he had intended as Monica Jumped back slightly at the outburst. "I'm sorry, it's just you've been weird today, I'm worried." He explained gentler and Monica sighed again, her hand dropping to her side and her eyes casting to the ground.

"I'm fine, just not feeling like myself right now." She explained, looking to meet Ben's eyes, "I just need to rest alone for a bit and I'll be as good as new." She said with a forced smile covering her face and forcing her eyes closed. Ben looked at her with raised eyebrows and a frown on his face, her eyes opened and she met his unbelieving look with a shrug. "Seriously Ben, I'll be fine, trust me." She said and his shoulders finally fell, he sighed before looking at her with a gentler look in his eyes.

"Well, that's good then." He said sincerely, before his demeanor changed again, "Last night I told you I wanted to talk to you about something." He said and she nodded, remembering the text. "I was talking with Julie last night and I think you two should hang out, just the two of you sometime." He said and she inwardly groaned her head falling. "Oh come one, Mon," He pleaded, "I know you don't like her, but you two are important to me and I want you to get along." He said and she looked at him with concern.

"I don't have a problem with Julie." She defended and Ben looked at her with a look that said he didn't believe her. She sighed again, "It's not Julie that's the issue." She said carefully.

"Then what is it?" Ben asked, trying to figure out what the problem she had with his relationship was.

"Its.." She started before turning away from him, "It's nothing, Ben," She finished turning back to him, "If it means that much to you, I will start trying to hang out with her and become her friend." She forced out and Ben quickly pulled her into a tight hug which she returned happy that she could hide her blush.

Ben pulled away and smiled turning to the window and transforming back into Big Chill and opening it, but before he flew out he turned to look at her one last time. "If anything happens, tell me." He said seriously and she nodded. Satisfied with her response he turned and launched himself out the window once again and Monica watched him disappear.

When he was out of sight she closed and locked the window before exiting her room to get some food. She supposed she shouldn't have been surprised that Ben would show up at her window given her behavior this morning, she just wasn't expecting him to be wound so tightly. As she rummaged through the kitchen she continued thinking, she knew it would be difficult to keep Ben from figuring out that she went on patrol with Kevin last night, but she never imagined that she would be this easy to see through for him. She grabbed a soda and closed the fridge looking at the can and mumbling to herself, "Maybe we have known each other too long." A bitter smile came over her at the thought before she grabbed a cup of ramen from the pantry and began making it up. As she waited for the time to go by on the microwave she turned to look out the window, smiling at the clear sky and thinking she might go running later while the weather stayed nice. Her eyes fell to look in her backyard and landed on the shadowy figure standing by the tree, its blue eyes boring into her. She kept its gaze as the burning feeling in her shoulder began again, only this time it didn't hurt, a sick and twisted smile came over the creatures face before the sound of the microwave beeping its end drew her attention away from the window. She quickly looked back and glared, the creature was gone. At least now she knew for certain that the thing was following her. She pulled her soup out of the microwave and ran back to her room, pulling out her phone and shoot a text to Kevin.

_It was here._

* * *

**Alright, and that is that. The second chapter is done. I hope that you enjoyed it and please tell me what you thought by leaving a review. Thank you for reading and I hope to see you all again!**

**The Freak is out of here!**


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